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When Mother Nature Crashed the Parrish Midsummer Gala

With Sanford Biggers's clouds overhead, 700 cultural stewards raised more than $1.7 million for the Parrish Art Museum before dancing through a downpour.

The Parrish Art Museum’s Midsummer Gala: In the Clouds could not have been more on theme. After a Saturday of dramatic thunderstorms and a flood watch, 700 guests—many in haute couture—arrived at the museum, and what could have been a washout was an absolute blowout. The gala raised more than $1.7 million in support of the museum’s exhibitions, education initiatives and inclusive programming; honorees included philanthropist Ellen Katz and artists Enoc Perez, Joan Semmel, Hiroshi Sugimoto and, in memoriam, Pat Steir.

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The Parrish is a long, sleek, single-story building on 14 acres of meadow in Water Mill. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, it was inspired by the potato-field barns local artists once turned into sun-drenched studios. Its landscape, at once wild and manicured, is home to iconic sculptures like Roy Lichtenstein’s Tokyo Brushstroke I and II, which one can walk around and recognize from Montauk Highway.

The Parrish’s executive director, Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, who helped choose the honorees and the theme of the night, said that this year’s gala stemmed from Sanford Biggers’ current exhibition. Biggers also helped create the gala’s visuals and the idea of a night in the clouds.

For Biggers, clouds are a recurring motif. Standing under cartoon-like clouds made from aluminum and acrylic, Unsui (Cloud Forest), he told Observer, “During the pandemic, I spent most of my time out here, and one of my ways of staying calm and connected to the universe was looking at the clouds for hours at a time.” Wearing a necklace with two dangling silver cloud charms, he........

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